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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 116 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  2. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  3. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  4. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  5. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  6. That was a fun ________________.
  7. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  8. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  9. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  10. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  11. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  12. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  13. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  14. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  15. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  16. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  17. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  18. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  19. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  20. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  21. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  22. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  23. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  24. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. kid — child
  2. capital — a big letter
  3. wax — in the ear
  4. wax — to grow
  5. capital — money
  6. game — a match
  7. hand — help
  8. kid — to tease
  9. scale — size or range
  10. current — electric
  11. game — wild animals
  12. scale — in music
  13. hand — in cards
  14. current — happening now
  15. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  16. current — of water
  17. scale — for weighing
  18. fork — to eat with
  19. capital — a city
  20. hand — part of the body
  21. fork — in a road
  22. game — a kind of play
  23. wax — for sculpting
  24. fork — a garden tool

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com